Same here.  Called the toll free customer support. First I was told some AntiVirus program was interfering with the activation (Avast interfering with its own product? I asked).  Then I was told that it would not run on a Mac, and would not believe me when I said I had been running the free trial for a week.  When I asked to escalate to someone who knew the product, he refused and referred me the Avast support web site.

I was not able to find any VPN tech support — just the user forum.

Anyway, I went to my payment service to resolve/ reclaim my money. There was an immediate response that said vender had chosen not to dialogue and my complaint was escalated from complaint to claim.

Too bad that there are such a bunch of incompetents somewhere in the Avast business chain ----
I tested for speed, server selection, checked my address and apparent locations, tried assorted programs and sites that responded to geolocation changes.
I even got assorted security check verifications because of my “new” locations.

The VPN seemed to do everything I wanted, without me having to play geek to set it up.